Flood-weary Australians flee new, 'monster' storm

FILE - In this file photo taken Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011, two local residents walk through floodwater after getting ice and food to take to their flooded residence in the suburb of New Farm in Brisbane, Australia. Cyclone Yasi, a strong tropical cyclone, roared toward Australia's flood-ravaged northeast on Monday, Jan. 31, 2011, prompting evacuations and warnings from officials that the storm could be the worst the already-swamped region has ever seen. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard, File)
— AP

FILE - In this file photo taken Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011, two local residents walk through floodwater after getting ice and food to take to their flooded residence in the suburb of New Farm in Brisbane, Australia. Cyclone Yasi, a strong tropical cyclone, roared toward Australia's flood-ravaged northeast on Monday, Jan. 31, 2011, prompting evacuations and warnings from officials that the storm could be the worst the already-swamped region has ever seen. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard, File)
/ AP

FILE - In this file photo taken Friday, Jan. 14, 2011, an unidentified resident clears away the mud from a flooded home in Brisbane, Australia. Cyclone Yasi, a strong tropical cyclone, roared toward Australia's flood-ravaged northeast on Monday, Jan. 31, 2011, prompting evacuations and warnings from officials that the storm could be the worst the already-swamped region has ever seen. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard, File)
/ AP

CAIRNS, Australia 
Tens of thousands of people fled the path of a monster storm bearing down on northeastern Australia as officials warned that the life-threatening cyclone had increased in strength overnight.

"We are facing a storm of catastrophic proportions in a highly populated area," Bligh told reporters. "What it all adds up to is a very frightening time. We're looking at 24 hours of quite terrifying winds, torrential rain, likely loss of electricity and mobile phones. People really need to be prepaing them mentally if nothing else."

Hospitals in the tourist gateway of Cairns emptied as military evacuation flights ferried the ill and elderly to safety far south from a long stretch of Queensland state's tropical coast that are in the path of Cyclone Yasi. Residents packed onto extra commercial flights added to allow them to leave.

The Cairns airport was scheduled to close Wednesday as Cyclone Yasi approaches.

"We're in the process of packing up boxes ... the dogs and the pet snake and getting out of here," Cairns resident Melissa Lovejoy told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. She said the family decided to leave their home near the coast for a friend's place that was sturdier and further inland after getting phone call and a text message warning residents to evacuate by Tuesday night.

Cyclone Yasi was forecast to hit the coast late Wednesday or early Thursday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Carla Jenkins, a 23-year-old Cairns resident and flight attendant, was feeling jittery as her plane coasted to a halt at the Cairns airport Tuesday night. Jenkins lived through Cyclone Larry, which slammed into the region in 2006, and feared Yasi would be even more brutal.

"One of the scariest things I remember (from Larry) was on the radio, they said, 'Fear for your life,'" said Jenkins, who was planning to ride out the storm in her house. "I've got a feeling this is going to be worse. So I'm just a bit freaked out."

Forecasters said up to three feet (one meter) of rain could fall on some coastal communities. Many parts of Queensland state are already saturated from months of flooding, though the worst floods hit areas hundreds of miles (kilometers) farther south of the towns in the immediate path of Yasi. Still, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said residents up and down the coast needed to prepare.

"It's such a big storm - it's a monster, killer storm - that it's not just about where this crosses the coast that is at risk," Bligh said.

"I know many of us will feel that Queensland has already borne about as much as we can bear when it comes to disasters and storms," she said. "But more is being asked of us."

Cairns, a city of some 164,000 people and a gateway for visitors to the Great Barrier Reef, was in the path to bear the brunt of the storm. But wind warnings of various degrees of strength were issued for a stretch of coast some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) long, from the remote community Cape Melville to the port city of Gladstone.